Tre Nagella - Inside the Music Industry with 4-Time Grammy Winner - MasterStroke with Monica Enand & Sejal Pietrzak

Episode Transcript
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Georgianna Moreland (00:00):
Welcome to Masterstroke with Monica Enid
and Sejo Pietrzak.
This is Georgiana Moreland,executive producer, and we have
a very special episode for youtoday In celebration of the
magic of music and Grammy season.
We're joined by our friend, themulti-award winning, talented
producer, engineer, mixer andmusician, Trey Nagella.

(00:20):
The music that you will hearthroughout this episode is from
some of his latest projects.
First up is the ImpossibleDream, nominated for Best
Traditional Pop Vocal Album,Brainchild of Broadway star
Aaron Nazar, who broughttogether legends like Sting,
Lin-Manuel Miranda, Josh Groban,Kristen Chenoweth, to name a

(00:40):
few, All in an effort to raiseawareness for ALS.
Then we will dive into Romaniby the Dallas String Quartet and
the London Symphony Orchestra,composed by my brother, the
musical genius of Jan Zanka andfinally Perla, a viral hit by
the guys from North Texas or Losdel North Texas, one of the

(01:02):
standout artists on Trey's newrecord label, the dream, the
impossible dream to fight theunbeatable foe to bear with

(01:24):
unbearable sorrow.

Monica Enand (01:26):
All right, welcome to Masterstroke.
Today's episode promises to bea deep dive into the heart of
the music industry with one ofits most talented architects,
and we'll hear more about him injust a moment.
But we also have somethingdifferent on the podcast today,
and that is that GeorgianaMoreland, who is our executive

(01:47):
producer, has come out frombehind the curtain and is
hosting the show with us.
Sejal and I are just so happyto have Georgiana in the front
of house today.
Welcome, georgiana.

Well, thank you, thank you.
And my good friend Trey Nagellais here joining us, grammy
Award winning producer, musicianjack of all trades.
And, trey, how many Grammys dowe have?

Tre Nagella (02:14):
I'm on number four and nominated for number five
this February.

Hello, hello, and I have a really funny
story to tell about that.
So Trey and I have known eachother probably about 10 years,
right?

Yeah, that's about right.

He's worked with DSQ Jan Zonka, who
I've worked with in the past,and years and years ago I was
actually in the recording studiowith them and I was doing some
you know video thought I wascool doing some video for you
know Instagram, whatever theheck and there was a box in the
way and I was like, hey, trey,can I move this box?
And he was like, oh yeah, yeah,it was one of my Grammys that

(02:52):
came a couple days ago and Ihaven't opened it.

You left it in the box.
Oh my gosh Trey, it was in thebox on the floor.

So when you go up on stage and you get your Grammy
, you actually don't keep thatone.
No, the ones that you see themgive to you on stage are just
props.
Essentially they are real, butthey don't have your name
engraved and all that.
So they have a couple that theyhand out for looks, and then
they take them back from youwhen you come off stage and then
it's weeks later, once theyengrave them, send them out to

(03:28):
all the winners oh, that's socool, I would carry mine around
everywhere.

I'd be like putting it in my bag.
I'd be showing it to everyone.

Sejal Pietrzak (03:38):
I'm sorry well, it's really valuable.
You don't want to carry itaround.

I don't know you know, I'm um, I'm very humbled
by it and I'm proud of them, butI also realize that it's art
and art is very subjective andso it's hard to I try to be very
humble about it.
I've had the opportunityworking with some really
talented people over my careerum many who don't win awards.

(04:05):
So as much as I'm appreciative,I try not to put a whole bunch
of stock into it.
There's a famous quote fromWoody Allen, the film director,
and he famously did not attendthe Oscars one year when he was
nominated.
And they asked him why not?
And he said how are you goingto pick a winner for art?

He said now, if you want to run a race, I can
tell you who won the race, but Idon't know how to tell great

(04:56):
records and great music that,because I do think it's
important not to put too muchstock into, you know, into
feeling too much, because if youfeel too connected to it, then
you know, if it doesn't happen,does that mean it wasn't great?
No, it doesn't.
It really doesn't.
You know that's not the case.
But what we have seen on thisshow, after doing it for a year,

(05:18):
is that people who have repeatsuccess, it's just like one
after another.
They're not a, let's say, onehit wonder, since we're talking
about the music business.
There's something special aboutthem and you know, I think
success does beget success, andyou said, like working with
talented people, but I don'tthink that's.

(05:40):
You can't fake that.

And it's the talented people who we see, the
artists who want to work withTrey, such as Lady Gaga and Kirk
Franklin, Blake Shelton, EdSheeran, Travis Scott.
That's quite a list, and I'msure the list is even longer
than that.
It's pretty impressive.

I've got some stories.
It's been a long career.

Well, we actually want to hear about some
of those stories in a littlebit, but we're actually thrilled
to have you on the show.
I mean super excited.
So maybe we can start and feelfree to jump in with any stories
along the way.
But how did your music journeybegin?
You know who were the mentors.
How did you know who are theinfluencers?

(06:24):
How did you know who are theinfluencers?
How did you get into this andhow did you get to where you are
?

I started playing guitar, like a lot of kids, when
I was probably junior high, age, 13, 14 years old and I went to
a large high school I grew upin Dallas, and so it was a big
5A school with thousands andthousands of kids, and they had
a in addition to the theaterdepartment which most schools

(06:51):
have, they also had a technicaltheater department which would
teach sound lights, costumes,makeup, set building, all those
kinds of things, kinds of things, and so that was the first time
anyone ever taught me aboutmicrophones and running a PA
system.
So, freshmen, in high school,they're introducing you to
running a soundboard in the highschool theater department, and

(07:15):
I got enamored with that, aswell as playing guitar in a
little garage band.
And then my junior year in highschool, we pooled our money and
we went to a small recordingstudio to do some recording and,
you know, nothing ever came tothe recording.
We're a bunch of high schoolkids, but it was my first time
in an environment like that andI just thought it was the

(07:37):
coolest place I'd ever seen.
And so my senior year in highschool, they offered a program
for honor roll students seniorsonly where you could get out of
class and do a non-paidinternship.
So I literally went to thephone book this was pre-Google

(07:59):
and you had to go to the yellowpages and I looked up recording
studios and started going downthe list pages.
And I looked up recordingstudios and started going down
the list and I got rejectionafter rejection until I got all
the way down to L and found aplace that said they would take
me and I started going thereevery single day, eventually,
kind of skipping skipping school, skipping class, to hang out at

(08:21):
the recording studio all daylong.
That's sort of where I met myfirst two mentors were the two
engineers that worked at thatstudio.
So you know they taught mequite a bit.
And then I started asking themhey, once I graduate high school
, where do I get a school forthis kind of thing?
And they recommended a placecalled Full Sail which is in
Orlando.
It's kind of geared towardsmusic production and film and

(08:45):
video and computer animation Ifyou want to go work at Pixar,
those types of things.
It's a creative, kind of like atrade school but really high
end.
And so after high school Ipacked up everything and moved
there.
I ended up doing a couple ofyears there and then came back.
My next mentor was a composerthat I got a job working with.

(09:08):
He was mostly doing TV andradio commercials, writing
jingles, scoring movies, thatkind of stuff.
He hired me to come on as hisproducer and help him.
He's a great writer andcomposer but he's not an
engineer.
I would do a lot of thetechnical stuff for him.
He's a great writer andcomposer but he's not an
engineer, so I would do a lot ofthe technical stuff for him.

(09:28):
And then he found out that Iprogrammed drums and played
guitar and did other things andso we kind of became a team and
I worked with him for a longtime.
He's still kind of a fatherfigure slash business mentor to
me.
What's his name?
His name's Paul Loomis.
Like kind of a father figureslash business mentor to me.
He's been very what's his?
name.
His name's Paul Loomis.

Okay.

And he's probably one of America's premier jingle
writers.
If you've heard things likeStanley steamer gets carpet
cleaner yeah, he's.
He's done all those kinds ofthings and he's been very
successful in business ingeneral.
He owns a number of companies,so he's a very bright
entrepreneur, and so I got tospend thousands of hours in a

(10:13):
room with him soaking in some ofthat knowledge, and then as far
as a little later in my career,when I was 26 or so, I started
working with a gospel artistnamed Kirk Franklin and logged
thousands of hours with him foryears and years.
We worked together, and so he'sbeen a really great mentor for
me as well, in kind of adifferent aspect, musically and

(10:37):
spiritually.
That's awesome.
I think it's important foreverybody to have a mentor, no
matter what your craft or yourbusiness.
You know learning from someonemaybe older and wiser, more
experienced, and I think that'sreally important part of growth.
So I've been fortunate to havea few different mentors along

(10:58):
the way.

That's come up a couple of different episodes as
well.
You know both Monica and Italking about it, but then also
some of our guests.
In all different aspects, it'svery important to find mentors
and then to be a good menteealso.
You know so that mentors wantto mentor you.
That's great.
So how did you get involvedwith, how did you find you know,

(11:21):
working with artists thatultimately led to you know being
at the pinnacle of your careerand and yes, we don't talk about
the award so much but to get tothat level, You're asking how I
, how I ran across these artists?
Yeah, how did it progress?

It's really an organic process.
I wish there was a, a realanswer.
This is what's kind of achallenge or a difficult thing
about music business or being aproducer or engineer.
Right, if you want to go be adoctor, for example, there's a
very pretty clear-cut path.
Music doesn't really have that.
There is no producer school togo to.

(12:03):
You know, you can study musiclike performance, and get a
music composition degree orperformance degree.
You can, like me, study theengineering or the more
technical aspect of it, butthere is no real producer school
to go to.
There's no set path on how tomeet artists or my types of

(12:25):
clients, so it just sort ofhappens organically.
I remember to tell a quickanecdote.
I have a friend of mine who's atouring musician and a
phenomenal player and he wastelling me that he was in
Singapore for this and Australiafor that and he'd been touring

(12:46):
all over the world and of course, as a young person it sounded
so glamorous and fascinating andI'm asking him how did you do
this and how did you get thisjob and how did you go here?
And he eventually picked up on,I think, where I was going and
said you know, man, I can tellyou how it happened for me, but
the truth is you're going tohave your own path.

(13:07):
You're not going to be able tofollow what I did because you
won't meet the same people andhave the same story.
So I know that's kind of avague answer to what you asked
me, but I've met people in alldifferent kinds of ways.
It's usually word of mouth.
Honestly, I don't advertiselike a traditional business.
It's just who you know, and oneartist recommends you to

(13:31):
another artist, or somebodyhears an album you worked on and
then wants you to offer thosesame services for their project.
So I'm still looking for thesecret.

Well, as an artist too, it's being open
to opportunities right In everyway Right, and being willing to
go for everything.
We recently interviewed ThomasKramer, who spoke about his
episode was about quantumcomputing and Monica was talking
about the progression of hiscareer and she said you know, it
seems like you've had quite abit of luck.
And he said something that wasso transformative for me where

(14:10):
he said, yeah, but luck favorsthe prepared Right, and I think
even just the path of an artistis just you're constantly
learning, and I mean everythingyou spoke about previously was
just about learning from youknow, mr Loomis, and all the
opportunities and just beinghungry to learn and to grow and
there's a lot of common threadsbetween while I agree with you

(14:33):
that I think music is the most,probably more vague than anybody
many other careers in terms ofhow to get there, the entire
industry that you're in and noone.

I think most careers that end up exceptional
are not straight lines.
There is no one thing that youdid or one moment.
But we do talk about the showis called Masterstroke and we
like to talk about the kind ofmasterstroke moments, kind of
the turning point, and it mightnot be like I did this and then

(15:04):
boom, I was successful andeverything went great after that
.
Obviously that's not like youknow, you sit under a tree and
get hit by an apple, it's notlike that.
But is there a moment likewhere you go?
I think I'm on the right pathand I understand my gift, my
talent, that I'm bringing, and Iknow that I'm going to continue
, because what you did, trey, ismuch riskier than, frankly,

(15:32):
like Sejal and I, like we're inindustries where we kind of
moved along a certain path andand I think what you did was a
lot taking a lot more risk as anhonor roll student, as you've
mentioned, and deciding to gothat path.
So I think it's reallyadmirable.

Yes, it's definitely a riskier move, I
think as a very young personlike high school age when I
started getting into this.
You're pretty naive at that ageand so I didn't realize it was
that risky and there was no realbackup plan.
This was just it.

(16:07):
This was what I was going to doand it was my passion.
I joke with my mom now as anadult and I say Mom, why didn't
you tell me to go be a dentistor real estate person or
something more normal?
And we have a laugh about itand she said you know, if I
would have told you at that ageto do it, you wouldn't have

(16:27):
listened to me anyway.
There was no deterring you.

You were sick, you needed an Indian mom In Indian
families, they would have saiduh-uh.
But actually I'm so glad youdidn't have that and that you
did have your mom, because shewas wise.

They weren't the most supportive.
My dad being wiser, he wasmusical in his young days and he
kind of tried to deter me fromit.
But, like my mom said, therewas no deterring me, so I just
went about my path.
I packed up everything I hadknown.
We were 1,300 miles away.

(17:03):
Luckily it worked out.

So it's clear you had that kind of early passion.
But was there a moment at whichyou go I'm going to make money,
I'm going to have a professionand I'm going to be one of the
top Grammy award winning orwhatever, I'm going to be able
to make a good living at this.
Was there a moment where you gookay, this is working out?

I sort of knew at a really young age this was it,
this was what I wanted.
I was very singular, focused.
So I don't know if there wasone moment, but this is sort of
all I've pursued since I was,you know, junior, high, high
school age.
You know I've had differentmoments that kind of continued
to push me along, like theprogram in high school, you know

(17:54):
, helped motivate me, meetingthose engineers when I was in
high school and they encouragedme to do it, and then that
encouraged me to pack up.
You know, I lived in one placemy whole life through high
school and then that encouragedme to pack up.
You know, I lived in one placemy whole life through high
school and then after that ittakes some courage to pack up
everything you own and movehalfway across the country not
knowing anything.
And then I did really well atschool and so that encouraged me

(18:20):
.
You know, knowing that I wasmaking good grades, I ended up
graduating valedictorian of mycollege.
So that sort of was anotherconfidence booster.
But again, think, being alittle naive, I thought, hey,
I'm the, I got all straight A'sand 4.0 and I'm coming out of
here, I know what I'm doing.

(18:40):
And then you realize when youget into the real world and
you're still just the younggreen kid that you don't know
what you're doing and you stillhave a lot to learn.
And then you're quickly humbledagain and so I think that sort
of continued over the years.

Is there an initial artist that you got an
opportunity to work with thatyou think sort of springboarded
to the next and the next and thenext?

I'd say working with Kirk Franklin did that for
me.
I'd worked with some otherfairly big artists, but they
were sporadic.
You know, I may have gotten theopportunity to spend a weekend
doing something Snoop Dogg or aweekend 50 Cent or different
kinds of artists where I woulddo a day or two or three or one

(19:26):
song on an album through myearly 20s and then around 25 or
26, I got a call from Kirk andhe said come on board and
basically do this entire albumwith him and it became nine
months of my life working.
We averaged around 50 hours aweek for almost a year to do

(19:50):
that project.
And then that him being such alarge, influential figure in
that gospel and christiancommunity, that sort of helped
launch me onto a little bitbigger stage, to where everyone
had heard of him and wanted tohear the albums.
That album went out and I endedup winning my first grammy for

(20:14):
that record which, um, I thoughtthat would kind of change my
life, but it didn't reallychange my life as much as I
thought it would.
But it does give you somecredibility, right.
It gives you instantaneous sortof respect from other people in
the industry.
They know that you must bedoing something right.

(20:35):
You must know what you're doingif you're working with an
artist like that to work on analbum that becomes successful
like that.
So I think that helped, andthen my career kind of continued
to grow from there.

Well, trey talked to us about that because
, being located in Dallas, right, you really built something
significant in Dallas andcompared to a Miami or New York
or in LA, where probably hasbigger music scenes.
Am I correct?

Yeah, I would say that LA, uh, new York and
nashville probably your,probably your top three cities.
Nashville, mostly for countryand ccm stuff.
Obviously, la is the mecca forthe music industry.
Um, miami, miami would also beup there, mostly for latin music
.
So being in dallas, dallas issort of a second or third tier

(21:26):
city, so I do think that's alittle bit more of a challenge
for me, not being where all theopportunities are, and so I had
a lot of people talk to me aboutthat early in my career why,
aren't you going to la?
why aren't you moving?
But I always felt like there'slike the dallas fort worth

(21:47):
metroplex is still eight millionpeople, all right, so there's
still a lot of talented peoplehere and there's a big enough
industry.
It's a big enough city thatthere's an industry for
everything.
So people seem surprised thatyou can make it in the music
business in Dallas and I thinkwe're like fifth or sixth
largest city in the country.

(22:08):
There's still a market for it.

Do you find artists coming to you now?

I do have artists that come to me and I think the
technology helps in a big waynow.
Maybe in decades past thatwasn't so feasible, but now I
mean, I don't know exactly whereyou ladies are all, but I know
we're all not in the same room.

Right, right, so that I was going to ask you
what technology you're talkingabout.
Things like you know, zoom, orbeing able to connect and not
have to be face-to-face for allyour meetings well that it's
digital, the music is digitalright, and that it can be anyway
yeah, I have people that I'venever met that are clients, that
send me files.

They record at home , they record in their studio in
new york or wherever, and thenthey send me the files to mix or
work on production and we cango back and forth.
Some of the software that we usehas almost like cloud-based
work now, where you can work inconjunction with someone else
simultaneously.

(23:14):
I use a program called AudioMovers that lets me stream full
quality audio in real time.
So, let's say, monica was anartist and she sent me a song to
mix and I'd worked on it bymyself maybe for a day or two,
but I wanted to get her opinion.
She could go into you know aquiet space and put on

(23:38):
headphones or put in her AirPodsand I can be streaming my work
to her in real time and we couldbe on FaceTime or Zoom just to
communicate and she can say no,I want to hear my voice more
like this, or can you turn thisup or turn this down?
And I can do it real time andshe's hearing what I'm doing,
just like she's sitting in theroom with me.
So those types of technologies.

We have a lot of that technology.

Yeah, the technology has made it a lot
more feasible to have a careeroutside of LA, and I'm just a
two and a half hour plane flight, so it's being very centrally
located in the country.
It's not too tough to hop on aplane and be anywhere in a
matter of hours if I need to be.

Well and Tre break down, let's say, an
album like Romani by DSQ, right?
No-transcript?
Did you record the strings herein Dallas at Lumina Sound or
break that down a little bit sowe kind of see how even an album

(24:41):
like that worked.

Yeah, so in that particular instance the leader
of the group had worked withsome arrangers and they do
mock-ups with keyboards, right.
Instead of hiring a realorchestra, they basically play
keyboard parts in to mock up theidea, in to mock up the idea,

(25:03):
and then they brought that to meand then we I recorded all the
string, the string quartetsparts, so the violinist, viola,
cello, bass we do all that hereat my place, and then he wanted
to put an entire orchestrabehind that.
So he flew to London.
They took the tracks that I hadrecorded to London and replaced
all the mock-up stuff with theLondon Symphony and then they

(25:39):
shipped the tracks back tosomeone else or me to do all the
final post-production.
So files get sent from onelocation to another location, in
this case kind of around theglobe, which is pretty neat.
He had files.
He had some arrangers andmusicians play on the record
that were in Spain in.
Romania, different places, sothe files literally just travel

(26:01):
the globe and then all kind ofreconvene in one place.

Whenever I think about music and recording, I
still think probably the oldschool way, where everyone's in
the studio and they're doing allof that together.
That's really interesting.
So you're talking abouttransformation, and this is
dramatic transformation, withbeing able to do this globally
and remotely, with digitaltechnology as traditional music

(26:42):
you know CDs, vinyl records tonow streaming services, which
really, you know, drive almost70% of recorded music revenue.
You know this is an industry.
This whole streaming music is$28 billion in 2023.
So I know our listeners wouldlove to understand, I would love
to understand a little bit moreabout that shift from an

(27:03):
industry perspective.
And how has that changed?
I mean, how's that changed thebusiness for, whether it's
artists or producers like you,or even the labels?

Well, people don't sell near as many records these
days, which is an unfortunatedownside.
You know it used to be in the,the heyday of record sales, the
80s and 90s, where an artistcould go out and get a gold
record or a platinum record,sell a million units because
that was the only way to consumemusic right to go to the store
and buy a cassette, to buy a CD.

(27:36):
Then, around 2000, when thestreaming services started
coming out, you saw a huge crashin the music industry for about
a decade, from 2000 to 2010 orso, where Napster was happening
and LimeWire and all theseservices where you were
downloading, people werestealing file sharing and the

(27:58):
music industry was kind of inturmoil, couldn't figure out how
do we make money on this nowand then, I think, post 2010 or
so we've.
So the last 15 years we'vestarted to get a handle on how
to monetize it.
You know, no one's reallystealing files that much because
you can just go on Spotify andstream it, so there's no need to

(28:18):
do that.

Um but then how do you make money like how does
that work then?

yeah, the streaming services unfortunately aren't
paying artists very much money.
Um, I mean, they do pay, butit's it's not very good,
unfortunately.
So, um, there is some moneybeing generated there for
artists, but I think that themajority of the artists are
especially the more independentor smaller artists.

(28:45):
You know the Taylor Swift's andDrake's of the world that are
streaming billions and billionsof streams.
That's still generating asignificant amount of money for
them, but the smaller artists itdoesn't do a lot.
It's really promotion forpeople to know who you are, and
I think that they're making alot of their revenue on touring

(29:08):
live shows, merchandise,endorsement deals, sponsorships,
all those kinds of things.
That's crazy that there's stillstill there's that you make your
money on all the other piecesother than the actual music
right, which isn't really allthat different from the way it's

(29:29):
used to used to be, because, uh, historically, the record
labels took the majority of therecord sales, right, so the
artists were still making theirmoney on things like touring and
and that kind of stuff.
So that's why record labels Idon't know if you guys are
familiar with, uh, what theycall a 360 deal, but it's

(29:51):
essentially the record labelwanting a piece of everything
instead of just the records theyrealize we can't make money on
just the albums.
So we'll fund the albums, we'llput money to promote and market
the albums, but we want to makesome money off of your shows or
off of your merchandise or offof your endorsement deal or

(30:14):
anything that you do, becausewe're not going to be able to
make enough just off the album.
The album is essentially apromotional item to get people
to know you, to come to yourshows, to buy your merchandise.
So that's been very common foryears and years now that they do
a 360 deal with a lot of theartists.

Yeah, it's funny because I think the promise of
the internet and the promise ofall this technology was sort of
democratizing and giving accessand that we would have this like
wide variety and everybodycould pick the music that they
wanted.
But it feels like in practicewhat has really happened is it
actually has concentrated andshortened the list of it's like

(31:00):
certain artists or certain songsget played way more than, as
opposed to having a wider choice.
It feels like what actuallyhappens is we're just
concentrating with the same sortof art.
Do you feel that way, or isthat a misinterpretation of sort
of what's happening?

Is that a misinterpretation of sort of
what's happening?
I would probably actually sortof disagree a little bit with
that.
I think that when the main formof discovery was radio, I
remember being a young personearly 2000s, getting into this
business and I was working on analbum and they had some radio
promo.
Like a program director came tothe studio to meet with the

(31:43):
artist and they laid out forthem the playlist that was on
their station.
This was a big pop station top40 and I remember looking at
that was my first time to eversee something like that and it
was like 20 songs, that was it.
And I remember being shocked andthinking, wait, your station

(32:04):
plays music 24 hours a day,you're telling me and it's the
same 20 songs over and overagain, the same 20 songs and
they were kind of like yeah,sometimes we'll do a little
call-in request or whatever, butfor the most part we've cycled
these 20 songs and every weekwhen new music comes out we'll
drop two or three and we'll addtwo or three more, but that's

(32:25):
basically it, and I rememberbeing shocked at how little
variety there was and I go nowonder every time I get in my
car and turn on, turn on theradio, it's that same song again
yeah, the same song, right sonow you know that, you see the
statistic that there's.
I've seen varying statistics.
Anywhere between 60,000 to100,000 songs a day are uploaded

(32:48):
to streaming services yeah, Ijust googled it, it's 100.

It's roughly 100,000 new songs being uploaded
to digital music platformsevery single day globally.

Right Now.
How you cut through thatclutter if you're an artist
right is a whole otherconversation, but I think that
people now having interactivestreaming services to just go
click on anything you want tohear, I think, and the services
do a pretty good job ofrecommending similar artists or

(33:19):
other things you might like.
Or then you havenon-interactive services like
Pandora, where you put in anartist you like and it will just
automatically play other thingssimilar.
You know, I think it leads tomore discovery now.

That's so true and tell me if I'm talking
out of turn.
But back in the day the recordlabels also kind of control the
program directors right andwould pay them onto the table
and say, hey, this is my song, Ineed you to put this in
rotation and play this over andover.
So there was a lot of kickbacks, a lot of that stuff going on.

There was, there was.
Yeah, they call that payola.

And that eventually became illegal.

But let's be honest , those types of things still
happen, maybe not in quite thesame way, exactly.

So I grew up with Gloria, estefan and
Amelia when they were startingtheir career and the whole thing
.
So Gloria's like my aunt right,and I've been in the studio
with them as a teenager, 20s, asthey were recording and getting
started.
And Gloria just got inducted inthe Songwriters Hall of Fame.
I mean, she writes like crazyand I remember them always
saying that's where artistsreally make money.

(34:30):
They have to write and theyhave to own their own music.
Is that still correct or wouldyou agree with?

that?
Yes, I would.
I would agree with the factthat the writers tend to make a
lion's share of the money right,and I feel like they should.
They're the, they're the writerexactly.
Wouldn't be um, there wouldn'tbe that creation if it wasn't
for their creativity.

(34:59):
As far as owning the masters,it's sort of a very complicated
system that I am still trying tounderstand, with writer shares,
publishers, record labels,artists and how that's all
divvied up, how the money thatcomes in is all divvied up.
I'm not an expert in all ofthat.

(35:21):
I know my experiences and I'vebeen in the room to learn a
little bit, but it's kind of acomplicated process.
The master is the actualphysical recording, not
necessarily the composition, butthe actual recording of that
composition.

(35:42):
So typically the record labelshistorically have owned the bulk
of that master.
The artist owns a percentage ofit.
You'll hear a lot of artists now, especially the big artists
like Kanye type person, comingout and saying artists need to
own their own masters.
If you're an artist and can dothat, then of course I'm going

(36:06):
to side with the artists and Ithink that's great for them.
I do also have.
I do also see the side of therecord labels, though it's easy
for the general public to getbehind their favorite artist.
If Taylor Swift comes out andsays artists need to own their
masters, then of course everyonejumps on that train and says

(36:26):
we're going to back what shesays and yeah, artists should
own all their masters, and thereis some truth to that.
But I would have to say thatthere is a record label there
for a reason, and it's a team ofpeople that are doing an
immense amount of work behindthe scenes to work on behalf of
that artist, and without that,it's not usually nearly as

(36:49):
successful.
I mean, I couldn't name you anysuperstar artist that isn't on
a record label.
Very true, and there's a reasonfor that.
Right, there's people backthere constantly doing all the
day-to-day work of promoting andmarketing and administrative
work and things to help thisartist, because there's no way

(37:10):
that they could do it all.
So I do see the side of therecord label as well.
I started a small record labelabout a year ago and am learning
very quickly how much work thatis.
So, to be fair, you know Idon't know that the artists
should own everything.
There has to be some leftoverfor all the other people on the

(37:32):
team that helps them Well andalso you know, it gives the
artists the opportunity to justfocus on the art, because it's
hard.

If the opportunity to just focus on the
art Because it's hard, ifthey're trying to focus on all
the other things, then the artis sacrificed, correct.

Yeah, I mean, I know everyone sees Taylor Swift
as a superhuman.
You know, woman that doeseverything and she is.
But you know she can't bebooking studio time and booking
musicians and doing all thelegal aspect of her split sheets
and publishing and trackingdown where all of the money
comes from and then outcoordinating her entire tour and

(38:09):
I mean that's just too much foranybody to do.
Everything takes a team Right,and I think this is true for any
business.
Know y'all talk about otherbusinesses on your podcast.
You know there's there might bea figurehead, a person that
kind of gets all the glory.

There's always a team behind anything that's been
successful at least in myexperience, it always takes a
team of people kind of similarto our business and that you
know there's entrepreneurs andmanagement teams that run
companies and people think, well, those are the people that
build the company and run thecompany.
But our investors make goodmoney on us too, because they
have to invest, they have tohelp us and support and they put

(38:50):
infrastructure that reduces therisk.
They have, you know, bestpractices that they share with
the teams.
So there's a lot of like.
Sometimes people are like, ah,the investors.
But truthfully, yeah, it takeseverybody to be successful.

I was just going to change subjects a little bit
and move to something that Ithink our listeners would love
to hear about.
So you've collaborated withlots of different artists and
people.
We know, famous people.
Can you tell us any anecdotesor memorable stories about any

(39:32):
of those?

Oh, lots of stories .
Which ones am I allowed to tell?

that's.
That's a good question.
We want the just build some tea, right we?

need the juiciest story you've got um, it's funny
to see what's on people's riderssometimes not just yellow story
about a particular person.

What is it yellow and what was it?
I don't remember writers what'sa writer yeah.

So a writer is a, a clause in a contract that
artists will typically havewhere they want certain items.
You know, and and I gotta stickup for the artists on this one
I've I've seen people getfrustrated or upset and go this
person's a diva because they hadto have all these demands.
They had to have this certainthing, and what I think the

(40:27):
average person doesn't realizeis a lot of these artists are
away from home for months on end.
Right, they live on a bus or ina hotel room Not always the
most glamorous thing, if you'renot.
You know, even for superstarsthat get first class travel,
it's silly.
They just want some creaturecomforts and the artist pays for
it and it's just there whereverthey go, and so it's available

(40:50):
to them if they want it.
So we get a lot of those in thestudio.
When big artists come throughthe studio, they'll send their
rider ahead of time, and sosometimes it's funny to see,
like Lil Wayne, he comes to thestudio every time he's in Dallas
and he always just has a bunchof candy.
That's all he wants Candy andsodas.
He's like a sugar sugar addict.

You know, I don't know if it's urban legend or
whatever, but was it Van Halenthat said they wanted the brown
M&Ms?
That's what I was trying torecall.
That story.
Okay, the story I think I'veheard is that Van Halen had in
their rider that they wanted abowl of M&Ms but they wanted all

(41:31):
the brown ones removed and thatthe reason they wanted this was
not because they actuallywanted it, but because when they
got there they wanted to knowif the producer had read the
rider.
Is that the story you've heardor do you think there's truth in
that?
Yes, that is that the storyyou've heard or do you think
there's?

there's truth in that.
That is the yes, that is thesame story, the same famous
urban legend that I've heard aswell.
They're just people, right,they get a lot of attention
maybe they you know paparazzifollows them, or they make a lot
of money or whatever, butthey're still just people at the
end of the day and they justwant to be comfortable,
especially in the environment Ilive in.

(42:00):
This is sort of a, the innersanctum where they want to
create.
So they, they don't have todress up.
You know, there aren'tpaparazzi, there aren't fans
here.
We keep it very private so thatthey can just come in in their
sweatpants.
And you know, the girls come inwith no makeup and their hair
up and they just want to becomfortable because we do long

(42:22):
hours.

And you know what they're artists.
Artists sometimes can beeccentric, and that's part of
who we are in order to create,so that's.
You know that sometimes is readincorrectly, but it's just part
of the quirks of who artistsare.
They express themselves.
You know the way they do andit's just part of the quirks of
who artists are.
They express themselves.
You know the way they do andit's all good.
Now okay, so I have a question.

(42:45):
So what do you do in the eventthat you have a mom who thinks
little Janie is a phenomenalsinger and you know she's
willing to pay the studio timeand bring her in with the Grammy
?
You know, producer, how do younavigate a situation like that,
Cause I'm sure you've comeacross that also.

Oh yeah, oh it does.

Oh yeah, all the time.
Um, we in the industry wepolitely refer to those as
vanity projects.
Okay and no, you know, nothingbad meant against that, but they
are really want to be in thisand that's the best way they

(43:28):
know how to pursue.
It is to hire the best team,right, which there's nothing
wrong with that.
Um, that's kind of a delicatesituation.
I never want to offend anybody.
Um, if you're just anindividual, then I think you can
sort of just decline it forwhatever reason.
You could say you're too busyor charge an exorbitant amount

(43:50):
of money or however you want tofind your polite way of
declining.
I own a recording studio, so weare open to the public and so we
don't want to turn away anybusiness.
So in those cases I usuallydon't personally take those
projects on.

(44:10):
I'm open to it.
I will definitely try to helpthe client as best I can.
I'll take a listen to theirdaughter or whatever.
Like your example, I might givethem some honest feedback.
I try to be as honest as I can.
People are coming to me becausethey want, as I can.
People are coming to me becausethey want.
I don't think they want to besugar-coated all the time.

(44:34):
That's not going to help them.
I know that it can hurt somepeople's feelings.
I would never try to do it in arude way, but I'll be honest
hey, this person needs a lot ofwork or you're not quite ready
for this.
You might want to invest yourmoney in vocal lessons instead
of trying to come make a recordright now and then let this

(44:55):
person develop a little bit more.

I'm sorry, I had to ask Now, trey, you've
worked across so many genres,from country to pop, to R&B, to
gospel, and then can we now addBroadway album to your list of
credits?

Yeah, I've been really fortunate to work in
different genres.
I think I know that some peoplefind a lot of success by
staying in one lane and thatworks for them.
I like all genres of music andso I've been pretty fortunate to
not really get pigeonholed intoone thing, um, so I think
that's kind of neat.

(45:34):
Uh, and yeah, I just recentlydid a broadway album.
I think you're referring tothat.
It's, I guess it's moreconsidered traditional pop or
americana.
They're not all necessarilybroadway show tunes, but I'd
never really done quite that.
I'd done choral records before.
I'd done orchestral records,obviously pop records, gospel

(45:56):
records, but this was kind of afirst working with a bunch of
big Broadway stars.

Can you tell us about the album, the
name of the album, what it'snominated for, the reason of the
album?
Tell us all about that, please.

Sure, there's a gentleman by the name of Aaron
Lazar and he has made a careeron Broadway for over 20 years.
He's probably not a big A-listcelebrity that most people would
know, but obviously a verytalented guy if you're going to
make a career for two decades onBroadway and he's been in

(46:34):
productions with a lot of thebig A-list stars.
Unfortunately, at the end oflast year he was diagnosed with
ALS, which is aneurodegenerative disease, and
that's really sad to hear.
Disease, um, and that's reallysad to hear.

(46:55):
And he decided that, for thedisease progressed too far along
, that he wanted to make analbum of his own, and so he did
not do original songs, but hewanted to do either like classic
american songs that are kind ofwhat we call American standards
, or or Broadway show tunes thatyou would know from famous
Broadway musicals.
And then he called in favors toa lot of his co-stars and asked

(47:19):
them to participate, and soevery album, every song on the
album, is a duet between him andanother notable Broadway person
To reach the unreachable star.

This is my quest to follow that star, no
matter how hopeless, no matterhow far.

A lot of them are Tony Award winners, grammy Award
winners.
There's big stars like JoshGroban, manuel Miranda, leslie
Odom Jr, kristen Chenoweth Stinga whole cast of amazing talent
on that album.
So that was a lot of fun andkind of hearkening back to the

(48:14):
previous conversation about thetechnology.
A lot of the songs were done inNew York, some of them were
done in LA, a lot of thearrangements were recorded in
Oklahoma and then I mixed it anddid some of the recording here
in Dallas and so everything wasjust sort of shipped all over
the place.
I think there was somethinglike nine different recording

(48:35):
studios were used, hundreds ofmusicians and the choir and
orchestras.
So it was a pretty big projectand I was hired to mix it.
So the original plan was thatall the songs would be recorded
and produced and they were goingto send it to me to mix, which
is basically the finalpost-production of balancing,
making sure that everythingsounds just right, how you want

(48:58):
it, equalization and balancethose types of things.
So it was supposed to be ninesongs.
I was going to do a song a dayand then have a 10th or 11th day
left for any kind of revision,so it was supposed to just be a
long week and a half, and itdidn't really work out that way.
It ended up being, you know, Idon't know 14, 15 hours a day

(49:23):
for almost two months, justbecause there were so many
moving parts to it that you know, we'd finish a song and there'd
be four or five producers plusthe artist, plus the arranger,
plus myself, and we'd all haveto agree, and so that would drag
out for a couple days, and thenwe'd sign off on it and we'd
send it to Josh Groban and he'dwant to make a change or his

(49:46):
team would want to do somethingelse, and so it just.
It was one of the morechallenging projects because of
the amount of people involved,but it turned out fantastic.
It was his dream to kind ofwalk the red carpet and he uh,
his team, his promotional teamand PR team and and everyone did
an amazing job promoting theproject, and he was fortunate to

(50:10):
go out and get a Grammynomination this year for best
traditional pop album, and so Idon't know if he'll be able to
walk it or not, but one way oranother he'll be going down the
red carpet in February, so I'mreally excited for him well,
congratulations to him and toyou and the entire team.

That's exciting.

It's very inspirational.

Yeah, it is pretty inspirational, he's an
inspirational guy, yeah.
That's amazing.

You've talked a bit about technology.
I have a burning question about.
You know.
We talk a lot on the show aboutartificial intelligence and the
effect it's having on allaspects of the world.
Intelligence and the effectit's having on all aspects of
the world.
I recently heard that PaulMcCartney told BBC that he
wanted to record the final, youknow, use AI to do a final
Beatles song with John Lennon'svocals.
And he, you know I'm sure hedidn't anticipate the kind of

(51:02):
pushback he was going to get,but he got, you know, kind of he
had to walk it back and sort ofsay, oh no, a thing would be
artificially, you know, createdand you know just that
controversy.
What's your take on how AI isaffecting the music industry?

I haven't had too much experience with it so I'm
probably not the best person toask.
I mean, obviously I've seen andheard the songs coming out
where they, you know,artificially created someone's
voice.
There's a lot of legal aspectsthat are going on with that.
I've been a member of theRecording Academy for years and
they've been talking about thatfor at least a few years now on

(51:44):
whether they should be able togive Grammys for an AI-created
song, which they've decidedagainst it does have to be
created by a real person.
But I'm in favor of technologyin general, so I'm open to see
where it can lead.
I do think that, no matter howgood the technology gets, I

(52:07):
still feel like there's in anyart, whether it be writing or
painting, that there's a humanelement there that's crucial.
I understand that an algorithmcan create a series of notes and
rhythms or transform someone'svoice to sound like this, but I

(52:30):
don't know.
I just I have a little bit ofhope in humanity that it's that
the computers aren't going totake away the soul.

so I'm all for the technology as long as it
doesn't replace completelyreplace people well, I think you
know I heard Ben Affleckrecently said you know, while AI
can create, you know, createrepeated new, you know, things
that have been done before, aiisn't going to be Shakespeare,

(53:02):
you know, and that's kind of thesame thing in art is, if you're
creating something brand new,there's no way for AI to do
anything brand new, because it'sjust based on training tune or
the drummer just kind of sped upa little bit in the chorus or
whatever, and I think thoseimperfections are what make it

(53:35):
perfect in a way.

It's what make it human.
A robot's not going to do that,so I think it's great.
It's just another tool that wecan use, but hopefully it's not
going to replace people.
We'll see where it goes.
It'll definitely be aninteresting thing to watch.

You know what else will be really interesting
to watch.
Trey is where you go from here.
So you just finished theImpossible Dream album and now
what I mean?
We know you have a recordstudio, we know you have your
record label, but what else?
What else is uh on on your uhfuture plans?

um, I'm you.
I'm producing a young countryartist right now here in dallas
named tristan roberson.
We put out a couple songs andI'm working on his album.
Hopefully that that'll be doneby January or February Cool
Working on the record label.
My partner is in the Latinmusic space, so we have two

(54:40):
artists that we're working on,one of them's having some decent
success right now with a songthat's kind of going a little
bit viral, which is interestingbecause I do not speak spanish
and I do not come from the latinworld, so I don't even know
what these songs are about halfthe time that we're putting out
on my label.
But it's cool to do thebusiness aspect of it.

(55:02):
So I've spent my career on whatI consider the front end, doing
the creative being in thestudio, and so the back end is
once the album is done.
What do you do with that?
How do you generate revenuefrom that?
So I'm kind of learning andwanting to focus on another
aspect of my career on that sideof it now.

(55:24):
So we'll see what happens.

What's the name of the artist?
Troy?
Give us the name of the artistand the name of the song we have
two.

One artist name is kiki k-i-k-i-i-i and we have
another artist named los delnorth texas.
This translates to the guysfrom north texas.
They have a song out right nowcalled perla.
That's about to hit 4 millionstreams so it kind of went viral

(56:08):
on TikTok.
So we're riding that wave as ofright now.
So we're doing another albumfor them.
Kiki just released a new songlast week and we have a video
coming out for that um, and thenwe'll see what happens next
year.
As far as like what artists.
That's one thing.
That's exciting and kind ofscary all at the same time is, I

(56:29):
can finish an album and be allexcited.
Hey, this album went out, it'sdoing great.
And then you go now, what?
Now, what?
Where's the next project?
What am I gonna do?

hopefully my phone's gonna ring or I'm
someone's gonna want to workwith me again and then on the
opposite side, you may finishyour project, think all right,
I've got some time off.
And then the next thing youknow, you get a call yeah, I've.

I used to.
I used to worry a lot when thewhen things were slow and kind
of have a little bit of a panic.
But I've learned now it justsort of ebbs and flows, and so
if it slows down instead ofworrying, just sort of enjoybbs
and flows.
And so if it slows down insteadof worrying, just sort of enjoy
the downtime.

Do you have any advice for young listeners who
might be aspiring to be in themusic industry and in different
aspects of the music industry?

That's a great question because I get a lot of
young people asking.
I would say it requiressacrifice.
I know that's not the mostpopular answer.
You know, when I got into thisas a behind-the-scenes person,
it was not glamour, right.

(57:42):
In fact I won't tell the wholefunny story but I didn't realize
that engineers and producersand people like myself even won
Grammys or got platinum recordsand I thought that was for the
star, that was for the artist.
And now I see a big trend inyoung people where the minute

(58:03):
they walk into the studio or theminute they meet me, the first
thing they say is like I want aplatinum record, I want to win a
Grammy, I want to work withso-and-so.
And I think it's great to havethose aspirations and dreams and
that's fine.
But I would say, focus more onthe craft and the success will
come hopefully.

(58:24):
But if you're going into thisto try to win an award, that's
probably not the best path andyou're highly going to.
You're very likely to bedisappointed.
Like I said at the beginning,there's a million super talented
people who even have greatcareers, but they don't win

(58:49):
awards or whatever.
So if you're getting into thisfor those types of reasons,
you're kind of getting into itfor the wrong thing.
You have to do this because youreally just have a passion for
it.

I think what you're saying about sacrifice
and then also doing somethingbecause you have passion for it
and then just working on yourcraft is actually the case in
almost any career.
I mean I think about Monica andI, you know, being in software
and technology companies.
That's exactly what I say topeople too.

(59:23):
You know, when I was a CEO, Imean it was every single day,
seven days a week sacrifice.
You're working around the clock, even as you're starting out.
It's the same Working aroundthe clock to be able to make

(59:44):
your way and you're sacrificing.
You got to do it because youlove it.

Yeah, everyone I know all of my colleagues that
have been successful in thisbusiness.
They all sacrificed a lot atsome point.
Now maybe, as they're moreestablished or they get older,
they have the luxury of notdoing that as much.
But we've all worked latenights, we've all done weekends,
we've all missed time withfamily or spouses or girlfriends
or whatever the case.

(01:00:09):
It's just part of it.
And I'm just noticing, with theyounger generation coming in,
it's like they want all theglitz and the glamour and the
success but they don't seem towant to do the work quite as
much.
I actually had a guy tell me onetime you know he was getting a

(01:00:29):
little bit frustrated saying youknow you're getting to do this
album and that album and workwith this artist and you get to
do all these cool projects andI'm just back here working with
the you know, the new artists.
That maybe isn't the best.
Or I'm doing more corporatetype stuff, I'm doing radio
commercials and voiceovers, andyou know.
And I said well, hey, man, ifyou want to do what I do, you're

(01:00:51):
around me every day, just watchwhat I do and sort of follow my
lead.
And with no hesitation helooked me square in the eye and
said I don't want to do what youdo.
You work too hard.

Monica Enand (01:01:03):
Those are choices that people make.
Yeah, and it's absolutely right.

Sejal Pietrzak (01:01:07):
And then and then there are people who get to
you know, be where they're atin their careers and to be at
the top, and then there's peoplewho don't, right, yeah.

Tre Nagella (01:01:18):
Within six months he was out of the business
completely.
You know, and I know it looks.
I know now, looking at me atthis stage of my career, a lot
of people think it looksglamorous or it looks so cool.
But when they see, I think ifyou were to see my day to day
and still how hard I work, itdoesn't seem quite as glamorous.
You know I put in six andsometimes seven days a week.

(01:01:42):
I consistently do 60 or morehours.
You know there's still a lot ofsacrifice, even 20 something
years into this.

Georgianna Moreland (01:01:50):
Well, trian, that's why I wanted you
to come talk to us today.
That's, honestly part of thereason that we invited you today
.
You're going to be our Grammyepisode, right?
So we're going to run thisepisode during Grammy season,
but I wanted people tounderstand the heart of a Grammy
winner.
I mean, as long as I've knownyou, you are probably the

(01:02:11):
kindest, nicest, most mellowhuman being that you know, one
of the people that I've met, andyou're all about the work, you
know, and I told the story aboutme being able to unbox your
Grammy because it wasn't aboutthat for you.
We were in the studio and youwere working and it's all about
the work, right?
So you're a true artist and Ihave a lot of respect for you in

(01:02:32):
every way.
So I'm just so thankful thatyou're able to come and speak
with us today and super excitedthat you're here and to show I
have to say that.

Trey, that comes through.
Like when Georgiana told usabout you, she said you would
never guess that this guy islike this crazy Grammy award
winner.
I mean, I know we're focusingon awards, but it's also just
who you've collaborated with,the amazing stars and the
amazing amount of work thatyou've gotten done in your
career.
And she said all of that.
And then she said you know, buthe's like a down to earth, you

(01:03:03):
know, grounded human being thatjust really works on his craft.
And it is so clear that thatcomes out.
And I think that's a great rolemodel and a great thing to pass
on to the next generation,because I don't think everybody
realizes the grinded out of thebehind the scenes and how much
work it is and that there is nomoment when you arrive and then

(01:03:26):
it's done.
Um, you kind of have to.
You know, I always used to saylike you don't buy success, you
rent it and the rent is dueevery single day, like you're
constantly needing to, needingto keep up with it yeah, that's
very true.

Well, I that's very kind words and I appreciate the
compliment a lot.
Um, you know, I'm just a musicfan.
I'm lucky to get to do this fora living.
I know that there's millionsand millions of people that
would love to do music or anykind of art in general and make
a living at it, and it is verydifficult.
There's a reason.

(01:04:04):
There's, you know, starvingartists and broke musician
stereotypes, because they'repretty true and I've been
fortunate to be able to make aliving in this for a long time.
And, um, I'm around suchtalented people every day.
You know that it's it's hard toget a big ego.
I guess people ask me like, howdo you stay humble?

(01:04:27):
I'm like I don't know.
I'm around, I admire the peopleI get to work with so much that
who am I to think I have?
You know that I'm all that whenI'm around all this talent
every day.

So who's your dream artist to collaborate with
?

Jamiroquai.
It's a mix of new, futuristicsounds but still also kind of
vintage, like disco, funk thingfrom the 70s.
And then he also uses a mix oforganic instruments, being like
real drums, real guitar, realbass, and then futuristic stuff.

(01:05:05):
So kind of a weird mishmash ofold and new and vintage and I
don't know.
He's been one of my favoriteartists since I was a teenager.

Does he know it?

Probably not.
So, jay, if you're listening, Iwant to work on your next
record.

All right, we'll send it to him.
What's the top five songs onyour playlist right now?
Wow Songs.

I don't know if I could name songs on your
playlist right now Wow songs.
I don't know if I could namesongs, but I could definitely
list you a handful of peoplethat I've been listening to
their albums.
I've been listening to BillieEilish's latest record.
I love the production.
Her and her brother are anincredible team.
I've been listening to Eon'salbum that Giorgiano was part of

(01:05:50):
.
The Dallas String Quartet didan album called Romani.
I've been listening to that.
I've been listening to a hardrock group called Bad Omens.
They're kind of a LinkinPark-ish.
They're actually on tour withLinkin Park right now.
Been checking that out workingon more country.
I've been listening to a littlebit more country lately.
Tour of Lincoln Park right now.
Been checking that out Workingon More Country.

(01:06:10):
I've been listening to a littlebit more country lately, so
I've been hooked on the Shaboozyalbum.
He's got a really interestingmix of it's country, but it's
really unique and modern, whichI like.
Is that four or five one?

more.

I didn't work on it , but he's a good buddy of mine.
There's an artist named AndyTimmons and he's a guitar player
kind of a guitar virtuoso andbeing a guitar player myself,
I've been hooked.
He just put out a new singlecalled love is greater than war
and I've been checking that outon repeat in my car the last few
days, wishing that one daymaybe I'll be able to play like

(01:06:54):
him.
It probably won't happen.
I'll leave that up to him.

Okay.
So I have another funny storyto tell about Billie Eilish.
So Sejal and I were at theLACMA gala in New York not New
York in LA a couple of years agoand there was this lady beside
us in her pajamas it wassponsored by Gucci, with a
blanket around her, and we'relike, oh my gosh, we love your
pajamas and it was Billie Eilish.
We had no idea that was right,Right.

(01:07:23):
So she was like, okay, thanks.

I mean, we were dressed up to the nines, right,
we were in ball gowns andwhatever.
And there she was in pajamasand she looked better than
anybody With her eye mask andthe whole thing, matt and eye
mask.

We were like, hey, cool pajamas.

Cool pajamas, that's funny.

Oh my gosh , I'm sure she didn't mind.
Oh, she thought it was funny.
It was, you know, hey, whatever.
Okay, so if you weren't inmusic at this stage in your life
, what else would you be doing?

that's tough, because this is all I've ever
done.
Um, I think I would probably dosomething with real estate.
I know it might seem silly, butI used to want to be an
architect and so I just thinkbuildings in general are neat
and I know that it's a prettystable way to make a living.

(01:08:19):
It can be very lucrative.
So I think I would probablywant to do something in real
estate, completely outside ofmusic.

Well, you know what's funny about that In
Monica's open when she saidwelcome to Masterstroke.
Today's episode promises to bea deep dive into the heart of
the music industry with one ofits most talented architects.

That's true, she did say that.

So there you go, you're building
something.

I'm trying to build and I've found the last four or
five years of my career I'vestarted considering myself more
less of just like an engineer ora producer and more of a music
entrepreneur.
And so to come back to yourquestion, I don't know what it
would be, but I'm really fallingin love with entrepreneurship

(01:09:10):
in general.
So I think a lot of thosecharacteristics or skill sets
kind of carry over right.
It wouldn't matter whatbusiness being an entrepreneur
is.

being an entrepreneur Be careful, though
it's addictive, thatentrepreneurship.

You're talking to the queen of
entrepreneurship, right therewith Monica Enid.

Oh, maybe I need some lessons.
Maybe I need to be interviewingyou after this is over.

Well, she gives lots of great lessons at many of
our episodes.
Go ahead, Monica, oh.

I was going to say and of course you have to
listen to my daughter, becauseshe's a fabulous singer, I
promise.

You could trade.

I was thinking it has been super fun to have
you on the show, Trey, and goodluck at the Grammys.
Super excited for ImpossibleDream and we'll be screaming for
it on the TV and thank you somuch for being on our show today
.

Thank you all for having me.
It was a real pleasure anddelight highlight of my day and
I hope that I wish you guys allthe best.
With your podcasts, I hope youget millions and millions of
listeners.

Thank you for listening today.
We would love for you to followand subscribe.
Monica and Sejo would love tohear from you.
You can text us directly fromthe link in the show notes of
this episode.
You can also find us on theLinkedIn page at Masterstroke
Podcast with Monica Enid andSejo Petrzak.
Until next time.

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Tre Nagella - Inside the Music Industry with 4-Time Grammy Winner

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Tre Nagella - Inside the Music Industry with 4-Time Grammy Winner